Afton's Birthday

Last Sunday was Afton's fourth birthday. We had church from 9-12. Then we came home for lunch and naps (quiet time). Dan decorated and helped me decorate the cake. Afton wanted to decorate the bunny's bow.

That kind of cake is very hard to frost!

My parents, Candice, and baby Lincoln came over to celebrate that afternoon. (Charlotte and Millie headed off to Chicago with Craig a few days early.) Since our guests wanted to leave before it got dark, we took a nice walk around the neighborhood and then changed things up by having Afton open her presents before dinner.

She got a Belle dress, some cute Minnie Mouse PJs, a switch-n-go dino, Tangled, a few books, ring pops, a glow-in-the-dark wand, a balloon, and a fishing pole that broke the same day.

Afton requested mac n cheese for dinner, so that's what she and Sam had while the rest of us had chicken divan followed by dessert.

We love our Afton girl! She is such a fun, sweet, girly girl. She brings so much joy into our family.

And this was my last time seeing Candice before she headed back to Chicago. It was so much fun to see her a lot this summer. I'm going to miss her! She was suffering from a major cluster headache that day, but I still convinced her to pose with me.

Kennewick, Washington

One week after getting back from Tennessee, we all flew out to Washington to visit Dan's family.

We decided to book a direct flight from D.C. Not a great idea. A drive up that should have taken two hours ended up taking three. We were already having to take detours 30 minutes into the trip to avoid heavy traffic. Fortunately, we had added in extra time and we made it. The flight was fine. Dan sat with the kids on one side of the aisle while I was snuggled between two strangers on the other side. It made it awkward to try and talk to Dan about anything. I felt like I was screaming at the lady next to me.

We got into Seattle around 8:30 and after going through security, Dan realized he forgot his hat. We tried to track it down, but couldn't. Then the rental car took FOREVER. They said they didn't have the full-sized car we ordered. So they offered us an SUV. We were all settled in when Dan realized the tires were bald (and we were going to be driving through the mountains) so someone else working there offered us a different car. Which happened to be full-sized and for some reason they hadn't offered it to us before. Anyway, we finally got out of there and spent the night at Heather and Lael's house. It was so nice of them to let us stay there!

Sunday they gave us a delicious breakfast and then we hit the road to Kennewick. We took a scenic route through the mountains and stopped for a view of Mount Rainier. We stopped for sacrament meeting in a small town called Eatonville. Can you see the amazing view they have from the church?

 Let's get a close-up.

What?? Amazing.

On the drive.

 My first belly shot taken by someone other than me. 20 weeks!

We made it that afternoon to Dan's parents' house and Matt and Amy's family was there too.Heather's family came soon after. We had a delicious dinner and an impromptu arm wrestling session.

Monday we got to visit with Betsy! It was so great to see her and her kids were so kind to mine. I should have gotten a picture of the kids together. After we left Sam said that Ella (Betsy's oldest) was his best friend.

I can't wait until we can finally have a roommate reunion with all the girls! I tried to arrange something with Julie, but we missed her by a day!

Tuesday we headed to the Benton County fair.

Elephant ear.

 Sam was in heaven playing with his cousins. From left to right: Sam, Mack, Luke, and Hunter.

 Texana and Sam riding the Big Pink.

We also swam one of those days, plus a few more times.

I think Tuesday night Dan went shooting with Matt. Sam played Blokus with his cousins and Grandma.

Wednesday morning we hung out at home. The weather was gorgeous.

 Rolling around in the inflatable ball.

 Afton really loved it, too.

 Not.

 I just think she is gorgeous!

Later we headed to a park with Dan's mom.

 And got a shaved ice.

Thursday we went to the temple with Dan's dad.

After the temple we packed up and said our goodbyes. We had a great trip!